By Erik Hinterleuthner
Ever download a game update that offers a massive amount of new content for a game, only to wake up and realize it was a dream? Well sometimes dreams come true, as Overwatch just released its biggest upgrade ever. It comes with five new heroes, new subroles, and the name change from Overwatch 2 back to Overwatch.
Overwatch wasn’t extremely popular prior to the announcement, with an average of 40,000 concurrent players daily on Steam. But after the Overwatch 2026 Spotlight YouTube video, the player count jumped to 60,000. When the update was released the game peaked at 160,000 players, evening out to a daily average of 100,000 since then.
Here’s a rollcall of the five new heroes players can check out.
A ninja, Mizuki’s teleportation and rooting of enemies makes him very fun to play, you can make your opponents follow you, then teleport back to where you were before, leaving them with nothing. You can also choose to not jump back if your foe was expecting you to, tricking your way out of any problem. His ability to root enemies makes him able to gain an offensive edge, allowing you to attack the vulnerable opponent, or to run away.
Mizuki plays quite unique, and has gameplay reminiscent of Sombra’s old translocator ability. You can charge in at enemies with complete aggression and then teleport back to where you started like nothing happened. He is rounded out with excellent voice acting that sells him as a morally grey character.
Domina can keep enemies at bay with her knockback and explosions, while also giving herself a shield to hide behind. She does have weaknesses though, as her explosives are easy to dodge if you are further away, and her shield can have holes made in it.
In general Domina plays similar to Sigma, but with added offensive abilities instead of Sigma’s more defensive utility. Her gun is also satisfying with a reload noise that sounds like a fancy notification.
Anran can encase herself in fire or turn into a fireball. She plays like you would expect, allowing you to charge in and burn enemies by making contact with them. Her abilities also allow you to gain lots of air time, allowing you to fly out of or into tricky situations.
Overall, Anran plays like a less lethal version of the character Tracer who focuses on building up damage over time to kill your enemies. Her fans are creatively designed, the sound of swiping the fan back and forth to kill enemies is quite satisfying.
Emre attacks enemies by jumping around and healing with his pistol. While this may sound powerful, he really doesn’t deal much damage. However his grenades deal lots of damage, if you can land them.
He is a variant of Soldier 76 and fills out the role quite well, while still adding new gameplay. While the character overall is simple, he is still fun.
Jetpack Cat is the first hero to have a permanent flight ability. This is made more dynamic by her ability to rocket forward. She can also pick up your allies and fly them around the map, allowing for some new mobile-based strategies, such as a flying Bastion using his minigun ability to destroy the enemy.
This cute character is made all the better by the cat noises she makes. Whether it’s her taunting meows or her confused meows you are bound to love her. Or you can shoot her out of the sky, she is quite easy to hit.
This major update is certainly worthy of the name change from Overwatch 2 back to Overwatch again. After the sour taste that was left in people’s mouths from the lackluster release of Overwatch 2, it seems that the palette has been cleansed and Overwatch is back to starting on a fresh slate.
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